


It's not bad at all

by MisterKissen



Series: DC Comics OneShots [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Batfamily Feels, Pneumonia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-13
Updated: 2015-10-13
Packaged: 2018-04-26 05:47:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4992622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MisterKissen/pseuds/MisterKissen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Damian is sick. His family takes care of him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's not bad at all

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fishfingersandjellybabies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fishfingersandjellybabies/gifts).



Being sick, Damian decided, was worse than being injured. The moment he started coughing he got sideways glances from his father and Pennyworth. Damian didn’t pay much attention to it. A lot of kids in his school were coming down with the flu, or some nasty cold, so there was really no reason to worry about it. He still drank the tea Pennyworth was constantly handing him.

Breathing got harder the next day. He could feel the mucus building up in his lungs and his throat started to ache from the constant coughing. That was also the moment the Alien started to look worried. But it still was just a cold and that was what Damian insisted on. So he went to school, went out on rather short patrols, was sent back home because they could hear him coming from a block away.

Next came the chills and fever. That was also the moment Damian realized it might not be a cold at all. Father and the Alien were talking in hushed voices just outside his room. The door was ajar but Damian still couldn’t make out any words over the buzzing in his head. He wanted to take a hot bath to warm his freezing limbs but it only resulted in more blankets being put over him and Doctor Thompkins being called.

Damian slept through the night, not aware that his family was constantly in and out of his room, checking his temperature. Damian woke up with Drake sleeping in an armchair on his bedside, open book on his chest, and an IV line attached to his arm. He still didn’t know what he actually had but right know he was thankful for the IV. His throat hurt a lot. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to drink, or eat, or talk. Damian went back to sleep.

He didn’t know how long he had slept. It might have been half an hour of a couple of days. Damian didn’t knew. His lungs hurt to the point in which breathing became a rather unpleasant chore. He remembered Todd reading to him, or maybe he dreamed it, Damian wasn’t sure and he wouldn’t ask. There was also a faint memory of someone petting his hair and talking in to him in small voices. But Damian didn’t knew.

Damian woke to voices in his room. “The antibiotics aren’t working” someone said. Damian wasn’t sure who, though. Maybe it was his father, or Pennyworth, or one of his brothers. Might have been Clark for all he knew. Damian didn’t wanted to open his eyes to check. “I know. I’m changing it to broad-spectrum antibiotics. That should do the trick. What about his lungs? Did it spread?” That might be Thompkins, Damian thought, drifting back into sleep.

The next time Damian woke up, he was strangely wide awake, he could feel the adrenalin in his veins but as far as he could tell there was no danger whatsoever. He just lay in bed, staring at the dark ceiling, listening to the rapid beeping of his heart monitor, and when did that happen anyway? His lugs didn’t hurt right know and Damian was counting it as a win until he started getting dizzy and realized why he woke up in the first place. He wasn’t breathing. The door to his bedroom flew open while he drew in a shaky breath. The pain was back in its full intensity. He might have been crying because of it. Bruce cradled him in is arms while Clark put a breathing mask on his face. It took a while for him to go back to sleep.

After the initial shock of forgetting to breath, and seriously, that sounded incredible dumb in his own head, he wasn’t left alone anymore. The second time Dick was sitting on the floor, next to the oxygen tank, watching something or other. When his body was doing another stupid stunt Damian didn’t even notice because he woke to Dick hovering over his face looking worried, mask already on his face. His parents were in his room within the minute.

The third time it happened while Clark was watching over him. He apparently saw it coming and woke Damian before his body could react to the lack of oxygen. “You need to breath, Damian.” Clark had said, while pulling the oxygen mask over his face. They did a breathing exercise. It hurt a lot but it didn’t happen again afterward. Damian (and everyone else) were incredibly grateful for that.

Damian had bacterial pneumonia, Doctor Thompkins explained to him, when he was lucid enough and she happened to be checking in on him. Both of his lungs were infected and the first antibiotics he had been given didn’t work. He was getting better now, the broad-spectrum was working. She would switch to pills when he was able to eat again.

“How long have I been out?” Damian asked Cassandra after the doctor had left. She looked at him, taking in his small form. The loss of weight, the paleness in his cheeks despite the fever. “Fifteen days” she finally said and went back to the movie they were watching. Fifteen days was a long time. Especially if everyone was waiting for him to get better. Damian could remember a little. At least he thought that those were memories. His siblings reading to him. Telling him to get better soon. Telling him that they love him. It was surreal. He remembered Clark talking to him, telling him about Krypton and other worlds he never heard about. He remembered his father sitting next to him on the bed, petting his hair and humming lullabies.

Damian got better, but still, everyone was constantly in his room. Reading to him. Talking to him. Telling him about what he had missed while he was asleep, (“I wasn’t unconscious, Todd”). Clark still came in, even if it was now somewhat awkward.

Doctor Thompkins had him on bed rest for another two weeks. Damian wouldn’t admit it, but he was glad he wasn’t allowed up quite yet. His family was constantly around him and surrounded by the people he loved, Damian decided, being sick wasn’t so bad at all.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr.com


End file.
